1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the document tray art and more particularly to tiered or stacked document trays.
2. Prior Art
The prior art discloses a number of methods of stacking document trays. One method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,810 to Juergens. Juergens discloses a tiered plastic letter tray which includes a riser plate member which is slidably received into fixed slots on the lower and upper portions of the upper and lower tray respectively. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,482,708, Des. 180,895, Des. 144,450, Des. 266,772 and Des. 261,904 to Levit, Davis, Cohen, Sayers, and Polhemus, respectively, also disclose stackable trays which include riser plates between the stacked trays. These riser plates fit into certain slots or brackets on the trays, so a disadvantage of all of these designs is that the trays cannot be slid into a staggered arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,553to Zitmore discloses a desk tray which can be stacked and slid into a staggered position. However, Zitmore design effectively has no vertical riser resulting in trays that are vertically very closely spaced, which is a disadvantage when trying to access documents from the lower tray.
A disadvantage of some of the trays of the prior art is that normal feet on the bottom of the tray are either redundant on the upper tray or are very unattractive on the upper tray. Thus, the feet are either left off the bottom of the upper trays, which results in different upper and lower trays, or just appear to be unnecessary appendages on the upper tray.